A Turkish cybersquatter has registered at least a dozen variants of Pope Benedict's name as .xxx internet domains and is using them to promote Islam.
Cybersquatted sites including PopeBenedict.xxx currently proclaim "Everyone will find Islam" alongside pictures of the Quran and Kaaba.
Unsurprisingly, the sites also state that " …

Re: @Scott

The list could indeed have been tediously lengthy. I'm not against peeps having religious beliefs, so long as;

A] They don't abuse / indoctrinate the minds of children (under 16yrs) with those ideas.

B] They keep their religion to themselves, at a personal level at all times.

C] No religious leaders get automatic seats in any government institution of what should be an entirely secular state (UK).

D] They don't plead special treatment or what ever for any beliefs or practices they hold.

E] They actually demonstrate their supposed tolerance of each others beliefs /existence for once.

I could go on but no religion will ever get near any of the above and I just wish they would drop the whole anachronism and move from the neolithic age into the modern world. I don't believe you need this mass / organized stuff in order to have a morally just society that knows right from wrong instinctively. And one that is tolerant of peeps who hold those beliefs (see above), but at the same time teaches children about the entire global gamut of theism and atheism alike.

But...

Re: Scott Broukell

A (ironically) holier-than-thou atheist pitches his unrequested beliefs to the public in the form of an atrocious "joke" and shortly afterwards asks people to keep their beliefs to themselves... should we lock him in the same bar with the religious persons? would that solve the problem?

@A. Coatsworth

You know what's more ironic? Someone arguing fallaciously from the position that atheism is a belief in the same way that religion is. I've seen around the internet, the truism that "Atheism is a religion in the same sense that 'off' is a TV channel."

Atheism isn't a religion, and it isn't a belief. It's merely the absence of them. It has no rituals, no doctrines, no holy texts, no creed, and no deities. And a worldwide absence of religious belief would be a substantial improvement to all on this benighted planet, yes?

Re: @Scott

In other words, you're just as much of a bigot as any mask wearing member of the KKK who burned a cross in a front yard or murdered a man because of the color of his skin, or his support for people who thought the color of skin shouldn't matter.

@Steven Roper

No, that would be Agnosticism, makes the claim it doesn't know whether or not there is a God. Atheism is the belief there is NO God.

And no, worldwide absence of religious belief doesn't bring substantial improvement. Most often it has brought death by the millions. cf Nazi Germany, Communist China, Pol Pot, etc. Oddly enough, it has usually been the Christians who were the first to come to the aid of the persecuted in these countries.

@Steven Roper

Yes, I know atheism is not a belief system and doesn't have a doctrine or standard practices, and is only the lack of it... Using that word in my previous post maybe wasn't the best decision, in the context.

Sadly that doesn't refrains a certain amount people to push their point of view* into everyone's faces as annoyingly and constantly as some religious congregations.

I have met persons, both in the internet and IRL, that just can't resist the urgency to tell world+dog how better that everyone else they are because they're atheist at any possible opportunity (and if the opportunity doesn't present itself, they'll create gladly).

I know they are a minority but they are a very vocal and annoying minority and they really give atheist a bad name, just as religious nutters do to the vast percentage of the population that is perfectly normal and adjusted, and just happen to believe in this or that god.

And yes, the world would be a better place if people just respected everyone's beliefs (or lack thereof) and just worked in peace, instead of promoting their position as "superior", by reason or force... I'll drink to that

*for lacking of a better word. "Pushing their absence of belief" would be more to the point, but sounds just weird

Re: @A. Coatsworth

Zero is a number. Black is a color. Independent is a political party. Single is a relationship status. Stopped is a level of activity. NULL is a value. /dev/null is a device. The null set is a set. 0 degrees is a temperature (as is −273.15*C). 4'33" is classified as music.

These are all things describing the lack of something. Belief in one god, belief in many gods, and belief in no god are all, equally, beliefs. Absence of a quality does not make something unquantifiable.

As for Atheists having no doctrines, creeds, or holy texts: Google for atheist creed, atheist doctrine, atheist texts, etc., and I think you will find many creeds and doctrines. Perhaps not from your "denomination" of Atheist, but nonetheless present.

Re: catholic.xxx

Re: catholic.xxx

While it is true that the word "catholic" technically means "universal" it is hardly ever used in that context any more. When it is used, it is Catholic, as in Catholic Church over which The Pope presides here on Earth.

The meaning of words changes over time, and it is probably time to update the definition to note that "universal" is an archaic definition.

Note: I'm not Catholic myself, I'm more from the Protestant realm although of no official affiliation.

Why not..

Re: Why not..

Not a bad idea. Send him a "cease and desist" email, asking him nicely to hand over the domain name, and then watch the greedy squatter spend his money on webhosting for a year. Then go back with another "cease and desist" email, get his hopes up again, watch him waste another year's money, rinse and repeat ad infinitum. Zero cost to the Pope, much time and money wasted by the squatter.

Beware the Streisand effect

The church would be better advised to do nothing. No-one in their right mind could possibly take the sites seriously, and most of the world probably has .xxx blocked by now anyway. The most likely explanation is that the xxx registry is trying to drum up a few news stories about people using their TLD. If the church actually engages with these idiots, they are merely encouraging the problem.

Well, there was I,

searching for some quality, hardcore smut, but to no avail. And then it occured to me - what's the one name you associate with quality grumble? Hefner? Flint? Ben Dover? Don't be silly, it's the Pope! Tap-tap-tap on the keyboard, checking out the XXX domain (glad they put that up, or I'd never have known where to find my jazz)... Moments later, I'd been converted to Islam.

Re: No action required

really??

"While the pope is not the first person to be cybersquatted in the new .xxx domain – Sir Richard Branson recently recovered richardbranson.xxx from a squatter – this does seem to be the most comprehensive effort to trash an individual by linking their name to .xxx porn (and to promote a "competitor")."

hard how is it to 'trash an individual' who was in the Nazi youth and has covered up his child molesting priests? this is the least of worries for the 'king of the paedos'

Re: really??

Criticise the Pope where it's due, but: He was in the "Hitler Youth", there was no such thing as the "Nazi youth", but the thing is that you couldn't not be in the Hitler Youth were you of age at the time, except by being Jewish.